All these companies releasing 3D capable TVs, AV recievers and more. Now Sony, Microsoft, and Wii are talking about 3D games and when they think they will come to market. Some manufacturers are even releasing new 3D TVs without the need for 3D glasses, even after seeing it at a recent expo it did give me a decent headache. Wide spread adoption of 3D TV is going to be harder then adoption of Blu Ray which still hasn’t taken off, they will try pushing it through broadcasting but I still don’t think people will be drawn to it as much as they would like to think. Key anaylists think that porn is the key to the early adoption of 3D TV but lets see how they plan on doing that.
Drawbacks of 3D:
- It isn’t standardized, meaning that different manufacturers have different ways of presenting TV on your screens. Which means that the 3D glasses that work for your Panasonic screen won’t work for your Samsung screen
- If your looking at the wrong object on the screen you may still get a little nauseated or develop a headache, so basically you have to know where is the right place to look
- 3D TV without 3D glasses do give you a headache if your looking at them for too long and it only took me about 5 minutes
“Adult videos will likely be an incentive for consumers to buy a 3-D TV,” says content analyst Yuji Fujimori, at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. “It’s worth paying attention to the move because it’s lack of content that’s hindering expansion.”
Link: Kotaku
I have had the Google Nexus One for about 4 months now and really abused the hell out of this phone. Overall I am really enjoying the phone and its capabilities, Google has done a good job with the phone and OS overall but there is a lot of room for improvement. After using this phone for this period I wanted to point out the parts that need to be worked on objectively, its still one of the best phones to surf the net on, and I love how much you can really customize this phone but there are areas where I think they should work on it to develop a better experience for the user with Android and Google Phones.
OS Versions and Confusion
There are so many versions of the OS that some phones can’t support, from Android 1.5 to 1.6, and 2.0 to 2.1, and now 2.2 on the way, and I don’t even know their names. All these different version have their faults and limitations, and a lot of them don’t have compatibility between the other operating systems. And you can’t just auto-upgrade some of the phones as they have physical limitations to them that we don’t even know about. Even if you can upgrade them they don’t work on them quickly enough. There has to be a smoother process for people to enjoy the features of the new OS on phones they have already purchased, instead of feeling left out which is the case right now. A lot of the phones are very good phones such as HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and even the Nexus One but people don’t want to be left out of the new features of an upgraded OS.
Application Confusion
Google pushed so hard to have applications by the thousands available to people from day one. One very large flaw has come back to bite them in them in the ass, they let the applications get posted with almost very little review or check. Many of the applications crash constantly and don’t provide the service they promised. There is no genuine process to find the right application, there might be one out there but its like trying to find a grain of sand in the desert, its become huge and not clear. There are some popular ones and you can see reviews online but there is no mechanism for people to find the right application without some trial and error. Apple is stringent about their application publication procedure and Google went the complete opposite way of not even bothering, its easier to bring products to market and quicker but it turns the consumers and users into the test bed making it very annoying. They should have an external application so you can go through and take a look, a better ranking process, and thorough testing process. And one of the biggest problems at this point is application compatibility between different Operating Systems and Phones, might work on one and not the other and you would never know unless someone already complained about it in the comments. This is their biggest problem, people are only talking about the numbers, but I would want a lot less application if I can get better quality applications.
Nexus One 3G Issues
There is a genuine issue with the 3G connectivity of the Nexus One, its spotty and at times it just disappears and I can’t figure out why. When its connected its pretty damn fast, but Google took the route of dropping the issue which is very bad for them, leaving people regretting they go this phone. I’m doing fine without it but 3G connectivity for extra features on the phone is key. Google integration of all its services is great but whats the point if you can’t use it on the go. Other versions of Android phone seem to be functioning fine, but as the first phone directly from Google buying another phone isn’t a solution.
Multi-Touch or What
The legal battle for Multi-Touch has gotten out of hand and people are getting annoyed about it. Some phones have it and some phones don’t, some will get the upgrade and some won’t, some phones can’t even support it. The list is confusing OSes and different models and which can support it is insane.
Support
Google faltered in the beginning, for network support contact your operator, for hardware support contact HTC, for OS support contact Google but you really can’t. There was almost not support structure for the device or other machines in place. From what I have read online and my experience with HTC they are very good phones and very good support for their products, but somethings only Google can answer. If you want to deal with retail products and consumers then you have to have the support structure to deal with people, its not the same as just providing services, now they are providing products directly to people and they really do need to support it and work on it. Some people are saying too little too late, but I still think improving on services is critical for product success and people might say the Nexus One was a flop for Google but overall I think it taught them a lesson.
Overall
I do believe in the Android OS, for everyone who has Blackberry and iPhone they are excellent phones as well but Google is making up ground fast. Gone are the days of Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola, now the new three giants have risen above them. Google, RIM, and Apple are really taking over and providing services to customers and more areas of revenue, nobody has push telecommunication providers like these three have, knocking them around as they like. Google is pushing hard to flood the market and get more market share, even going to the point as bribing providers but they are loving and they have a good product. Now to see what will happen next with the new iPhone, and so many other machines coming to market.
Now this is a shocker, Sony Ericsson became synonymous with phones, I can only remember back in the late 90s and early 2000 when I had a few Ericsson phones then the joint venture took place and I don’t remember as anything else but Sony Ericsson. Its no secret that I’m a huge fan of Sony Ericsson, because they built quality phones which didn’t have too many software bugs and could survive a major beating. I switch from Nokia a little while back and loved the phone. Now this major surprise is a shock, they will cease operations in four months and all employees will be distributed between Sony and Ericsson. It seems the recession hit them hard as well and they couldn’t get out of it.
Sony Ericsson CEO, Bert Nordberg, says: “We truly did believe in the vision that was Sony Ericsson, we had an ambition to rise to the top, but sadly, our way towards there has been hampered in numerous ways during the past few years, both financially and strategically. We are saddened to announce that our parent companies, Sony and Ericsson have decided to quit the joint venture and put its reinstatement on hold indefinitely.â€
Link: SEBlog
TVs have made huge jumps in the last 20 years, even the last 5 years have been fantastic, but manufacturers think they milk the most they can out of normal TVs that they want to go 3D for the next big thing. My next purchase won’t be a 3D TV, I will be picking up the best TV which high contrast, large screen, thin depth and best High Definition possible. 3D is something I want to avoid for now but its the buzz word that is flying around from every manufacturer and media company, every movie being redone for 3D. I might see a 3D movie and enjoy it but 3D where I have to wear those bulky glasses the whole day or whenever I’m watching something on TV is just ridiculous. I can bear to wear those glasses for a few hours but it has to be a movie I really want to see not any movie as I get annoyed by those glasses. But now they are moving into PC gaming as well as production TVs are those 3D TVs, everyone is talking about being 3D compatible, A/V Receivers and more, I refuse for now to get on board, those things will give me a headache.
The simple way to explain Google Buzz is that its a feed of what your doing online, initially its all Google Related sites which is an automatic feature. Whats surprising is how Google launched this so silently with no buzz, contrary to its name. But it can be really interesting connecting all people on your list and friends list together, and following the activity of more people. Its getting a bit jumbled with Google Reader as its automatically following more people, and sometimes keeps adding them back in so Buzz is being integrated across all Google Platforms.
To Modify what your sharing go to the Buzz Page under your inbox in Gmail, right there click on view connected site to change which sites will show on your Google Buzz as well as how they are shared. You can even add individual websites so the website activity shows up on your Google Buzz. What you do want to do is stop other people who don’t know the people on your list from viewing them, its as if you are showing the world your contacts, that is a bad automated feature from Google. These steps are provided by Lifehacker but here is the simple breakdown:
Go to your Google Profile: Then click the link labeled “Edit Profile” and on that page just follow the steps below.
UnCheck: “Display the list of people I’m following and people following me”
What I Dont like:
- Automatically shows who is following you and who you are following
- Your Google Chat conversations are put up for all to see as well as other data automatically
- It isn’t intuitive in how to unshare certain features
- Slightly intrudes in your privacy if you don’t know how to control it
What I like:
- It sort of pools all your activity into one window for friends to see, from Google Reader, Flickr, Twitter, Individual Websites
- Friends can comment on your activity and your details are kept within the Buzz page
- For once Google introduced a new item which integrates across all their platform
- You can really customize the details that are presented but all these details aren’t on one page
You can click on individual people to remove them from following you or you following them, and in the grey notes just under that button it will say they won’t know that you did it. Or you can it turn off Buzz completely, its all about how comfortable you are sharing this kind of information. Google is pushing into the realm of Facebook and other types of social networking but not just communication, its based on your content and what your doing, people can see and comment as well as you can comment on what there doing.
Overall I like it because its connecting friends on a different level and I’m enjoying it.
The Great
- Android 2.1 is more refined, works smoothly
- Amazing 3.7inch OLED Screen
- Powerful CPU, the Nexus One is a fast phone
- Excellent quality sound
- Fantastic 5.1 Megapixel Camera
- Interaction with all Google Services (Gmail, Latitude, Google Voice, Google Reader, Picasa, and others) is fantastic, its smooth and updates right away.
The Good
- Android Market Applications have built up over the past year and a bit, even though some need some more refining before hitting the market
- Very Good Quality Build
- Smooth design, and relatively thin, fits nicely in your hands but I keep hearing that it doesn’t take kindly to drops
- Decent phone signal
The Crap:
- Battery doesn’t even last the whole day, it makes it 75% through the day I use the phone a lot
- No Multitouch
- No Arabic Support, expecting it soon
- Speaker is ridiculously low and the ringer speaker is on the low side too, but you can hear the ringer clearly, I still have to get used to the new ringer
- Slow charging Battery
Overall
I think they have made great progress with all the Google Phones and I am enjoying using it. So much you can do with the data and configure this phone, this phone is for people who really like customizing how their phone works and how it presents the data to you. The interaction between all the programs with data being downloaded to the phone is very fast and smooth, I have 3G switched off and its still very smooth. The best part is surfing online with Flash working perfectly, it presents websites very well and smooth. All this information can be customized, the home screen can be customized, I like how much you can tweak it and move things around, the different widgets, and how easy it is to get to the settings page and tweak it.
Zain APN Settings:
There are some likes and dislikes to BBM 5.0, and I like that RIM tries to address these issues, so with BBM 5.0.0.55 they addressed the issue with the pictures, and cleaned up the status area and organized the groups a little. Its a simple upgrade to your current 33 version but I recommend that you do a full back up before doing any software modifications:
Improvements:
- Picture Preview, you don’t have to download to see the pictures now
- Cleaned up text in your status and chat previews
- Cleans up groups as well
Link: Download BBM 5.0.0.55
Lots of people have had experience with Etisalat in one way or another, and Etisalat owns a large chunk of Du so its pretty much the same company but its pretty odd how their coverage is slightly different. Everyone knows that Etisalat is one of the most rigid networks to have, they aren’t cheap, they really work hard to block your content, and they aren’t the best service.
The funny is that as we were approaching Dubai my Blackberry started dinging, I thought it was off and we were still 7000 feet in the air. I look at the phone and I was receiving the bbms, emails, and smses. I look at the network provider and I was connected to Du, all the way until the plane landed.
Now this is what I face every time I’m in Dubai:
With Etisalat:
- I can make local and international phone calls with out an issue on a normal phone
- When I connect using my Blackberry, I can’t get any BB service or msgs but the phone works normally
With Du:
- With my normal phone I can make local calls but when I try to make international calls I always get Network Busy, calls don’t go through
- With the Blackberry all the services work and I can make local and international calls
No matter what I did this always seems to be the case with these networks. Same situation that I mentioned in Bahrain with Batelco & Zain.
There was a lot of problems with the pre-release of BBM 5 months ago, contacts were being deleted and the chat program was crashing. This time around its Blackberry that had the official release of BBM 5 with all the new features. After using it for over a week and a majority of my usual contacts have switched over the change is interesting.
Pros:
- You can see details of the other person’s contact
- Enlarging the contact’s photo
- Associating BBM contacts with your phone book, the picture from BBM gets associated with your Phone book
- Groups are a great edition you can share pictures, lists, dates and conversations between the group and its very organizing unlike inviting people to conversations such as before. Also you can have the group symbol on your Blackberry Homepage so you won’t have to go into the BBM to see it.
- Barcode scanning makes it easier and unique to add people to your list, you always notice people looking for their BBM PIN no matter how many times you explain it to them.
- Backing up contacts remotely and locally.
Cons:
- The one major con that I think BBM 5 has is when your trying to send images. It’s not as easy as before and you have to transfer a picture, it doesn’t compress it and sends a simple small picture as it did before. Takes time to transfer the image so the half the time it fails.
Overall I think Blackberry did an amazing job with BBM 5, the only problem is with sending images but still its a huge step forward. Maybe they will be able to adjust it at a later point, but the benefit of the groups and shareing details are enourmous.
Vodafone Pay-As-You-Go service has always been very convenient because you can keep those lines for a very long time, but it seems my time is up. I have lost the number and it has gone back into the number rotation. Meaning that the life of my line has come to an end, and it has gone back to the Pay-As-You-Go lottery numbers and anyone can pick it up, and I have had this number for 5 years, since the summer of 2004 and after talking to a UK Vodafone agent I can’t seem to get it back.
When I spoke to them before they said as long as I have credit on the number that it can’t go back to rotation and last I checked was that I had 100 GBP (Pounds) on the card, but after talking to several representative for a while, it seems I didn’t really have an option of getting it back. He said that to keep a line alive I have to use the line once or top it up once every 3 months, and if it gets disconnected I have a total of 9 months to re-activate it and get the line back but I passed that mark making the assumption that I can’t lose it if I had credit on it from another representative. Having a UK line even when roaming Europe is a lot cheaper then using a Zain line on Roaming, something Zain’s charges are always higher and its convenient that your able to top it off using Vodafone cards from other countries using the Euro currency. Now it seems I either have to get another Pay-As-You-Go line or get a subscribers line, I will weigh my options when I’m at the Vodafone store. Just a thought popped into my head, I remember a long time back it was MTC/Vodafone so they can get the red from under Wataniya but I don’t know when the relationship went sour between them.